


fateful chance

by iffiness



Series: fem!Tony stuff [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Tony Stark, Extremis Tony Stark, F/M, Female Tony Stark, Hand wavy magic, M/M, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Resurrection, Rule 63, Tony Stark Has A Heart, author has no idea where this story is going, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 17:58:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14939124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iffiness/pseuds/iffiness
Summary: “You’re joking,” was the first thing out of Strange’s mouth as he gave her a more thorough once over, from her unwashed hair to the awkwardly sized boots on her feet. He took a long, heavy breath as he brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, eyes closing as his head started to shake back and forth. “Stark, you have got to be kidding me.”Toni offered a tight lipped smile in return, shrugging her shoulders even though he couldn’t see her response. “I mean…”“No. Don’t even finish that sentence,” Strange bit out, his hand falling back to his side. “You’ve been missing, presumed dead, for months now. You do realize that?”





	fateful chance

**Author's Note:**

> uuuuuh fair warning even I don't know where this is heading beyond the few fact points I really want to touch on. namely: resurrecting peggy, howard, and maria in ways that will most definitely involve hand-wavy magic that is in no way real. so if you're coming here and reading this expecting me to lead you on an adventure that i've already made up like a good DM you are very mistaken

Walking into Kamar-Taj might be even easier than walking into the Sanctum on Bleecker.

 

Then again, she’d just walked straight through the doors of both like she owned the place, so maybe it wasn’t  _ easy _ so much as she was just stubborn. She had business to attend to, and no magical doors were gonna stop her. 

 

_ Toni gazed up at the unassuming building in Greenwich Village, peering at it over the rim of her red tinted sunglasses. Happy was in the driver's seat, half turned around to stare at her after parking on the curb as he waited for instruction. He’d been more than willing to drive her out here, ecstatic that she’d asked even, and she was taking the time to bask in the warm safety that came from being around one of her oldest and closest friends.  _

 

_ “I hate magic, Haps,” Toni finally murmured to him, pocketing the phone that hadn’t left her hand since they pulled out of the Compound. Her fingers tightened around the red and gold briefcase at her feet, glancing at the man in the seat in front of her. He was wearing his own set of shades, black and harder to look past, but she knew he understood her well. It was a very distinctive fact among her small family that magic was some of the shittiest shit that ever shitted. Nothing good came from it as far as they were concerned, but Toni wasn’t blind enough to the world to say that maybe she was biased. After all, her only experiences had really been with the Witch (she doesn’t really count Loki, who threw her out of a window himself instead of using magic to do it), whose favorite pastime was fucking around in the head of the resident genius.  _

 

_ “We could always just leave, Boss. Nobody’d be the wiser.” He was smiling as he said it, but she could tell he was just worried. She’d already told him he couldn’t go in with her. She wasn’t going to risk him ever again.  _

 

_ She huffed out a laugh at his words anyway, despite the tension she felt building in her shoulders. It was just how they were. It was their thing. “Yeah, but where’s the fun in that?”  _

 

_ “We got different definitions of fun, I think.”  _

 

_ Her smile turned sardonic before she shrugged, throwing him a wink and pushing the handle of the car door open. The small crack allowed fresh air to waft inside, full of various scents from the fresh morning. Dew was still clinging to the trees lining the street, coffee shops beginning to brew their first pots, people slowly joining the busy city for their days. It was such a mundane, normal smell that helped calm her nerves more than the artificial scent of vanilla that Happy always had in his cars. “I think if my definition of fun wasn’t skewed by this point it would be more worrying than this.”  _

 

_ Happy’s laugh made her smile more genuine, but he sobered up quickly enough to make the entire situation tense again. “Do you ever miss it?” _

 

_ She raised a single brow at him in question, turning her attention from the building outside of the window to her longtime friend.  _

 

_ “What we used to be,” he continued at her silent prompting, “Y’know, a playgirl billionaire driving cars too fast to try to lose her very handsome bodyguard? Skipping out on galas and events like it was going out of style?” _

 

_ Toni snorted at his recollection of events, shaking her head fondly. “Well, I’m not sure who that bodyguard was, but sometimes I do miss being able to skip events like that. Was nice while it lasted. Now I have to show up and shake a few hands just to make sure the world doesn’t fall apart because Toni Stark decided to take a nap instead.” _

 

_ “You do good work, Boss,” Happy’s tone was distinctly proud sounding, and Toni found herself looking away before she could try to dissect the emotion behind it. He wouldn’t take offense to it. He knew she was bad with this kind of thing. “Never thought, when I took this job, that I’d be driving around gods and whatnot, but hey? Gods got nothing on being able to drive Toni Stark around.” _

 

_ Her smile was distinctly more genuine now than it had been the entire ride here, and she glanced at Happy long enough to see that he was smiling too. It had to have been a deliberate play on his end to get her to relax, but she wasn’t mad. She’d never be mad at that. “Thanks, Hap,” she murmured instead, pushing the door open wider and stepping out. “I’ll shoot you a text when I’m ready.”  _

 

_ And with her briefcase suit in one hand, a Starkpad tucked under her arm, she made her first move toward the building. She sauntered up the steps, pausing before the door with the intention of knocking. It opened on its own however, and with a long, withering sigh she pushed it open enough to walk inside, a wry smile on her lips as she heard it shut itself behind her.  _

 

_ She was alone just long enough to spin once on her heel, taking in the building’s interior. It was modern enough, but it had some sort of distinctly old feeling that she couldn’t place. It smelled like a library mixed with a massage parlor. Musky, but sweet. Like a thousand books with foxing running through their binds surrounded with pleasant incense that did more to confuse her olfactory senses than anything. Her nose was used to more clinical smells, or the metallic smell of her workshop.  _

 

_ Her attention was drawn away from classifying the smells assaulting her by sudden movement from the staircase ahead of her. She’d expected it to be Strange himself who greeted her, but it was… a cape. Floating there. By itself. And she could  _ **_swear_ ** _ it was staring at her, like it was trying to ask her who she was and why she was there. It did nothing to quell her hatred of magic. _

 

_ “Hi?” she finally spoke up to it, lifting a hand to waggle her fingers at it. She wasn’t sure what else she was supposed to do.  _

 

_ What she decidedly was not expecting was for the cape to come soaring straight at her, and only years of practice kept her from activating the suit in her hand. The billowing red fabric stopped just a few inches in front of her, and she watched warily as the corner of the collar reached forward and poked at her glasses first, then further up to her hair. It stayed touching there, almost petting as it tugged a strand loose and tried to put it back in place in the tight bun she’d wrapped her hair in that morning. Toni kept a practiced smile on her lips at its ministrations, trying to wrap her head around the fact that she had some sort of cape playing with her hair. Why couldn’t magic just make sense?  _

 

_ “What are you doing?”  _

 

_ A sharp voice barked from somewhere behind the cape, causing both Toni and it to jump in unison. She hadn’t been able to see past it to know someone was coming, but it was apparently caught in the act because it slouched. The cape slouched. Like it was guilty. Toni wasn’t sure when her life had become so weird that this barely even phased her anymore.  _

 

_ “I know you heard me, Cloak. Just because Stephen lets you do what you want doesn’t mean you can just run amok down here, doing whatev-...”  _

 

_ The cape-Cloak?- shimmied around Toni as the voice kept talking, coming to rest behind her and slowly descending onto her shoulders. It looked awkwardly out of place as it rested on her, thick and vivid against the two-tone grays of the very expensive three piece suit she’d worn. _

 

_ The man that had been talking had tapered off as the Cloak arranged itself on her, staring at the two of them with wide, incredulous eyes. He was wearing some weird robes that she’d roll her eyes at later, he was of Asian descent, and very clearly not expecting her to be there. Toni smiled widely at him, plastering on the smile she’d perfected as a child. It was plastic and fake, but it was charming for the public.  _

 

_ “This is just as awkward for me as it is for you, I assure you.” She joked and tried to step forward, hand extending for a shake, but the Cloak tugged her back. Toni’s brows furrowed at that, glancing down at her shoulder and back at the rest of it with a frown. She had no idea how to fight against a living Cloak keeping her in place, so she just let out a sigh and turned her attention back to the man in front of her, stretching her hand out in front of her. “Toni Stark,” she offered, though when the man made no move to come shake she let her hand fall back to her side. “I was hoping to speak with the Sorcerer Supreme? You guys don’t really have anything set up to make appointments, or I’d have called ahead.”  _

 

_ The silence stretched on for longer than she was comfortable with, the man looking between her and the Cloak instead of replying promptly. It took a lot of her considerable restraint to not break first and try to fill the silence with chatter.  _

 

_ “I’ll go get him,” the man finally stated, turning and walking up the steps.  _

 

_ The Cloak had apparently been waiting for him to leave, because as soon as his back was turned it started tugging her off to the left of the stairs.  _

 

_ “Uh, hey, cape-y? Cloaky? What do I call you?” Toni squeaked out, trying her best to stand her ground against the pulling. “I think we should probably wait here for him to get back. I’ve got a tight schedule today, y’know? Can’t really fit in getting kidnapped by a flying cape into it. I’m sure you understand. It’s nothing personal. I’m sure you’re a great… cape? Cloak. Thing.”  _

 

_ It stopped tugging at her words, to which she was grateful, but it started pulling at the loose strands of hair in her bun again instead. She let out an annoyed huff, but didn’t fight against it. If it kept the thing from dragging her to the Room of Requirement she’d take it. In her pocket her phone beeped, and she tugged it out to reply to the message Happy had sent her to let him know everything was going fine so far. She could explain the weird parts later.  _

 

_ A couple of minutes later she heard footsteps returning to the area from above her. She slid the phone back into her pocket as she looked up, seeing the man from before along with someone new in blue robes. He had interesting facial hair that just worked for him (and she had a passing thought that if she were a man she would absolutely wear her facial hair in a similar manner because it looked  _ **_good_ ** _.), eyes that she couldn’t decide if they were blue or green or some other combination, and dark hair with just enough white at his temples that she was convinced it was on purpose. All in all, he looked rather distinguished and like he was in charge of the place.  _

 

_ “Ms. Stark,” the new man spoke to her, though he didn’t smile as he did. _

 

_ His voice was deep and carried through the hall, but she’d been in enough boardrooms to know his was a power play. This is his domain. She respected that. She could even play along and pretend she has no idea who he is. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Mr. …?”  _

 

_ “Doctor,” the man corrected immediately, almost as if it was a point he had to make all too often to people. “Doctor Strange.”  _

 

_ She never understood that compulsion herself, because despite her several doctorates she’d yet to be called doctor. It was just pretentious, but maybe the doctors of the medical variety disagree with the sentiment. “My apologies,” she offered, “Doctor Strange. I was hoping you might have some time available this morning. I’d like to talk to you about the New Avengers.”  _

 

_ His eyes wavered from her to the Cloak that had yet to stop messing with her hair. Toni was sure by now it looked awful, but that was the price one paid when approaching magic users. You just never know when a flying cape is going to attach itself to you and decide it no longer wants to work at Hogwarts and would much rather become a stylist. _

_  
_ _ Doctor Strange lifted a hand and the Cloak hesitated before responding, releasing Toni’s shoulders and rushing over to him. It slid around him easily and came to rest on his shoulders, and she was almost jealous of how much better it looked on him than it had on her. It didn’t drag the floor, for starters, because he was taller than her, but it also just looked like it belonged there. “I do, in fact. Follow me.”  _

 

The only difference this time was the distinct lack of the usual greeting she got when she entered the Bleecker Sanctum. She’d gotten used to the strangely sentient red cape flying out of nowhere to wrap around her, playing with her hair and whatever else she decided to wear that day while they waited for its master to come for her. They’d had several more meetings after the first one, and honestly? She enjoyed them all. Strange was smart, just as quick witted as her sometimes, and they had an easy camaraderie between them. He’d helped with the revisions on the Accords just as easily as he helped form a new structure for the Avengers after the “Civil War” debacle. 

 

She stood alone in the foyer, hands stuffed into the pockets of the plain wool pants she wore, a size on the bigger side and mostly hanging loosely around her hips. The coat wrapped around her frame was also too large, bulky in all the wrong places, but it was warm and did its job well. The plain beiges washed her complexion out, but she was paler than usual anyway. It’d been a while since she’d had a chance to get out. 

 

“Hello?” she called out after a moment, taking a few more steps into the room, peering around for signs of any life. She’d not even considered that no one would be here when she came. She just assumed these places always had people. Maybe that had changed sometime in the last year. 

 

She was met with silence as she continued to wander further in the building, keeping her eyes and ears peeled for anything. She knew better than to just start touching things (she’d learned that lesson multiple times in fact), but this utter silence was throwing her off balance. 

 

Toni went by several doors before she began hearing noises, the lump behind her breastbone easing as she got closer. She had began to worry that the place had been abandoned. 

 

The sound of several items falling over, metal clamoring against wood as it hit the ground, assaulted her ears before a door ripped itself open down the hall from her and a red blur streaked toward her. It hit her hard, knocking her down as the familiar fabric wrapped itself around her body, the corners of the collar already stroking through her hair. 

 

She barely registered the muffled sounds of footsteps pounding down the hall toward them, the Cloak doing its best to cocoon her within its folds as if it was protecting her from the world. It warmed her heart to feel it trying, and she tried her best to wriggle a hand free to pet it back. “Hello, you,” she whispered to it softly, and smiled as it seemed to shiver in delight at her words. 

 

“Cloak!” a familiar voice bit out, causing it to retract itself from around her and fly back to its master. 

 

Toni looked up at him with a bittersweet smile, leaning up on her elbows as she watched the Cloak settle around his shoulders. Strange was just as she remembered, all tall, dark and brooding, with Wong right by his side. The orange circles that had been at his hands sizzled away as he took in the mess of a human on the floor in front of him, his brows creasing as he looked her over. 

 

“Hey there, Dumbledore,” she greeted him when he didn’t speak, pushing herself up further to stand. It was tense between the three of them, but for once in her life, Toni had no idea what to say to make it better. She’d dropped off the face of the earth for just over a year. There really wasn’t much she could say, or wanted to say, to justify that.  

 

“I’ve lost twenty years off my life between you and Strange,” Wong finally spoke for them all, his faux-mocking words breaking through the fog as he rested his hands on his hips. He sounded completely stressed out, but all it took was a glance at his face to see that he was happy. Relieved even.  

 

“See? You do care,” Toni grinned at him, then turned her attention to Strange. He seemed more pensive than Wong, definitely more suspicious, and she couldn’t blame him. “You’ve got some questions?” she implored, her hands finding their way back into her pockets as she rocked back on her feet. 

 

“None that can be answered easily,” Strange replied in turn, taking a step toward her. “May I?”

 

She didn’t move back from him, having expected already what he would want to do to confirm her identity and story. She didn’t  _ like _ it, but she wasn’t going to deny it. “I figured you would,” she nodded, standing still as his hands came up to either of her temples. “But I want to toss it out there that I’m fuzzy on a few parts. It’s why I’m here. I need to know, but I can’t do it on my own. I already tried. I didn’t even realize it had been so long until I saw a newspaper yesterday.” 

 

He nodded at her words, his hands already lighting up with orange circles and runs, and she soon felt him inside of her mind. It was gentle, probing around with a silk-like touch, but it didn’t take that long for him to find what he wanted and pull back. 

 

“You’re joking,” was the first thing out of Strange’s mouth as he gave her a more thorough once over, from her unwashed hair to the awkwardly sized boots on her feet. He took a long, heavy breath as he brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, eyes closing as his head started to shake back and forth. “Stark, you have got to be kidding me.”

 

Toni offered a tight lipped smile in return, shrugging her shoulders even though he couldn’t see her response. “I mean…”

 

“No. Don’t even finish that sentence,” Strange bit out, his hand falling back to his side. “You’ve been missing,  _ presumed dead _ , for months now. You do realize that?”

 

“Yes?” she replied, though it came more as a squeaked out question layered up in all her guilt than anything else. “I really didn’t expect it to take so long, and once the process began there was no way to…”

 

“Stark. You sequestered yourself away in some cabin none of us even knew about, performed a highly experimental and borderline illegal experiment  _ on yourself _ , and come back expecting what exactly?” 

 

“An extra set of eyes to look over the data?” Toni gave him her best, most winning smile, but it did nothing to remove the scowl that had grown on his face. It also did nothing to keep him from spinning on his heel and striding away, back toward the room he and Wong had come from previously. “Wha… Hey! Strange!” she called after him, looking from his retreating back to Wong, who still stood with her. “Stephen! C’mon!” 

 

“No,” he called back to her, and the word was punctuated by the slam of the door behind him. 

 

She grimaced as she looked from it to Wong, who was also looking between her and the door with an expression of bemusement intermingled with some sort of pity. “Am I in trouble?”

 

“Oh, yes,” Wong agreed easily, motioning for her to follow him as he led her away from the door Strange had disappeared behind. “I’ve not seen Stephen this angry in ages. I’m sure the rest of your team will be equally as upset.”

 

His words made her cringe. She could only imagine the veritable shitstorm heading her way as she was led to a guest room she could stay in. If Strange was this upset by it, she could only imagine the rest. Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy she’d expected to be pissed. Peter too, maybe. She hadn’t really put much thought into the fact that maybe Carol, the Defenders, the Guardians, the Revengers, and the other assorted mess of living beings she’d pulled together might take the news just as hard. “Any chance we can pretend I’m not here?”

 

“Oh, no,” Wong’s lips curled into a small smirk as he lingered at the door, “I’m quite looking forward to watching this play out.” He left after that, sliding the wooden door closed as he went off to (presumably) find Stephen and talk some sense into him.

 

“You’re a sadist!” Toni yelled after him, but it lacked any of the heat she would’ve normally put into it. In fact, the more reality started to settle on her shoulders the less she felt any of the lingering excitement she’d had when she decided to come here. She sat heavily on the bed in the corner of the room, shedding the layers she’d put on for the trip. 

 

“I’m so screwed,” she whispered to herself as she lifted a hand in front of her face. She watched with a mixed feeling of dread and excitement thrumming through her too-warm veins as slowly, emerging from her skin like something straight out of a dime store sci-fi novel, the golds and reds of the Iron Man armor bled into existence around her. 

  
  



End file.
